My roommate is charging me a fee for having a guest over.
By @judeyk · Friends
He's calling it a 'Guest Convenience Fee' and says it's for the extra water/electricity/wifi usage. He literally venmo requested me $10.
The full story
this feels so ridiculous i dont even know where to start. my boyfriend stayed the night on saturday. this is not a new thing, we've been dating for two years and my roommate has never had a problem with it. but yesterday morning my roommate (who works in finance lol) sits me down and gives me this whole speech about 'resource allocation' and 'utility impact'. he said since my boyfriend uses the wifi, charges his phone, and takes a shower, it's only 'fair' that i compensate for the added household expense. he literally calculated what he thinks is an appropriate fee–$10 per night. he said he's not trying to be a jerk, just 'equitable'. i thought he was doing a bit. like i was waiting for the punchline. but he was dead serious and sent me a venmo request for '$10 - Guest Convenience Fee 🫡'. i refused it. i told him that's not how living with people works. sometimes my friends come over, sometimes his do. sometimes i cook and use more of the gas stove, sometimes he has a movie marathon and uses the electricity for the tv all day. it all evens out. you don't nickel-and-dime your own roommate. our lease says nothing about this, obviously. he's acting like i'm the one being unreasonable and cheap. he said if i don't want to pay, my boyfriend isn't welcome to stay over anymore because it's a 'strain on shared resources' in the apartment that we both pay for. it's so incredibly weird and i feel like i'm living with a parody of a landlord instead of a roommate. this is not normal behavior right? who does this?
How people voted
- OP Is Right — 21% (7 votes)
- Both Messy — 48% (16 votes)
- OP Is Wrong — 30% (10 votes)
Readers say “Both Messy” (48%) — 33 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@willay — nahhhhh
@accidentallyhonest — The 🫡 emoji would have sent me.
@alsoyikes — How often is your boyfriend *really* staying over? Like is it 2 nights a week or is he basically living there?
@brbthinking — A guest is a guest, you pay for the roof over your own head not theirs.
@zanelol — start charging him a fee for using the living room tv
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